It is a curious fact that the suffix 'ton' or 'tun' was practically used nowhere on the Continent in the names of places; but the other manorial suffix, 'ham,' in one or other of its forms--'hem,' 'heim,' or 'haim'--was widely spread. And as in those districts where it was found most abundantly, it translated itself, as in England, into the Latin _villa_, its early geographical distribution may have an important significance. «Geographical distribution of _hams_ and _heims_.» «In England.» On the annexed map is marked for each county the per-centage of the names of places mentioned in the Domesday Survey ending in _ham_.[341] This will give a fair view of their distribution in Saxon England. It will be seen that the 'hams' of England were most numerous in the south-eastern counties, from Lincolnshire and Norfolk to Sussex, finding their densest centre in Essex.[342] «In Picardy.» Passing on to the Continent, very similar evidence, but of earlier date, is afforded for a small district surrounding St. Omer, in Picardy, by a survey of the [p256] estates of the Abbey of St. Bertin, taken about the year 850. The 'villas' there mentioned as '_ad fratrum usus pertinentes_,' and which were distinctly manors, are twenty-five in number, and the names of fifteen of them ended in 'hem.'[343] Similar evidence is given for various districts in Germany in the list of donations to the abbeys, the abbots of which possessed estates in different parts of Germany--sometimes whole manors or villages, sometimes only one or two holdings in this or that place. «In the various abbey cartularies.» «_Heims_ most numerous in the Roman province of Germania Prima.» On the accompanying map are marked the sites of places mentioned in the cartularies of the Abbeys of Fulda,[344] Corvey,[345] St. Gall,[346] Frising,[347] Wizenburg,[348] Lorsch,[349] and in other early records, ending in _heim_ in the various districts of Germany. The result is remarkable. It shows that these _heims_ were most numerous in what was once the Roman province of _Germania Prima_, on the left bank of the upper Rhine, the present Elsass, and on both sides of the Rhine around Mayence--districts conquered by the Frankish and Alamannic tribes in the fifth century, but inhabited by Germans from the time of Tacitus, and perhaps of Cæsar, and so districts in which German populations had come very early and continued long under Roman rule. In this district the _heims_ rose in [p257] number to 80 per cent. of the places mentioned in the charters. [Illustration: Percentage of Local Names ending in 'ham' (Domesday Survey). Percentage of Local Names ending without further suffix (Domesday Survey). Local names ending in 'heim'. Local names ending in 'ingen'. Local names ending in 'ingahem'. German patronymic village names in France.]